According to cbbreview.com they will be. They have Iona as the 73rd best team this season and Providence as the 75th best team. They also have UMass as the 81st best team in the country.
I'm not very familiar with cbbreview but am surprised to see them placing Iona ahead of Providence in their top 100 countdown. It'll be interesting to see where College Sports Madness places Iona and PC in their countdown.
According to cbbreview.com they will be. They have Iona as the 73rd best team this season and Providence as the 75th best team. They also have UMass as the 81st best team in the country.
I'm not very familiar with cbbreview but am surprised to see them placing Iona ahead of Providence in their top 100 countdown. It'll be interesting to see where College Sports Madness places Iona and PC in their countdown.
Interesting indeed. I don't know a lot about the players coming into to providence but I believe they lost 2 of their top 3 minutes guys (watson and Duke) so they did have some holes to fill.
Last Edit: Aug 30, 2021 17:00:28 GMT -5 by reindeerfan
Post by nashvillestag on Aug 30, 2021 15:58:06 GMT -5
Well for what it's worth I have seen one write-up on the Gaels suggesting that not only should they be odds on favorites to represent the MAAC in the NCAA Tournament, but also they might even have the possibility of being the team wearing the white shirts in the first round (meaning an 8th seed or better). Probably a bit of an exaggeration of their strength, BOTOH certainly scary in how strong they may be if this writer is somewhat correct.
Well for what it's worth I have seen one write-up on the Gaels suggesting that not only should they be odds on favorites to represent the MAAC in the NCAA Tournament, but also they might even have the possibility of being the team wearing the white shirts in the first round (meaning an 8th seed or better). Probably a bit of an exaggeration of their strength, BOTOH certainly scary in how strong they may be if this writer is somewhat correct.
College Sports Madness is down to #56 in their top 144 preview and Providence has yet to be listed. So either CSM will predict PC to be one of the top 5 teams in the Big East or they think PC will be near the bottom of the Big East this season. CSM has Creighton at #62 as the 6th best team in the Big East.
There seems to be a small crack in the Pitino will work miracles at Iona narrative. ESPN’s Lunardi dropped Iona to a 16 seed in the bracketology he put out today.
Since Lunardi’s previous bracket came out in August, I wondered why Lunardi would drop Iona’s seeding because I’m not aware of any major roster move that’s occurred with Iona in the past month. Then I noticed that they lost 4 of the 5 games they played in their trip to Greece.
If that is the reason for Lunardi dropping Iona’s seeding, that would seem to indicate to me that Lunardi takes foreign exhibition games seriously and perhaps those losses didn’t come against the better teams in the Greek league.
Also from the Iona schedule, it seems the MAAC Preseason Awards Show will be Tuesday October 19th at 7:00pm.
Katz does not have Providence making the NCAAs in his bracket.
CSM in its top 144 preview, has Providence at 52, coming in 5th in the Big East. And they have Iona at 63. Meanwhile cbbreview has Iona as the 73rd best team this season and PC as the 75th best team.
Last Edit: Sept 20, 2021 11:58:03 GMT -5 by stag76
As we get closer to the start of the season, here's some items which seem to indicate Providence, not Iona, will be the best team we will play this year.
Matt Norlander in his ranking of all 358 D1 teams places Providence 55 and Iona 139. Here's his summary of PC: 55. Providence: Ed Cooley normally doesn't build his teams around an interior, bruising player, but that will be the case with 6-10 center Nate Watson. Here's an early tip: Watson is one of the five best players in the Big East. He'll be helped by key returnee A.J. Reeves; I'll add that the Friars return more than 75% of their production from a .500 team, so PC seems sleeper-ish. There are eight new faces in Providence, with Indiana transfer Al Durham expected to be a big-time Friar within the first few weeks of the season.
Three man weave lists PC's Watson as the 95th best player in college basketball for this season. No one from Iona makes the top 100 plus 25 honorable mention.
